Uganda

Livestock

The country's natural environment provided good grazing
for
cattle, sheep, and goats, with indigenous breeds
dominating most
livestock in Uganda. Smallholder farmers owned about 95
percent
of all cattle, although several hundred modern commercial
ranches
were established during the 1960s and early 1970s in areas
that
had been cleared of tsetse-fly infestation. Ranching was
successful in the late 1960s, but during the upheaval of
the
1970s many ranches were looted, and most farmers sold off
their
animals at low prices to minimize their losses. In the
1980s, the
government provided substantial aid to farmers, and by
1983
eighty ranches had been restocked with cattle.
Nevertheless, by
the late 1980s, the livestock sector continued to incur
heavy
animal losses as a result of disease, especially in the
northern
and northeastern regions. Civil strife in those areas also
led to
a complete breakdown in disease control and the spread of
tsetse
flies. Cattle rustling, especially along the Kenyan
border, also
depleted herds in some areas of the northeast.

The government hoped to increase the cattle population
to 10
million by the year 2000. To do this, it arranged a
purchase of
cattle from Tanzania in 1988 and implemented a US$10.5
million
project supported by Kuwait to rehabilitate the cattle
industry.
The government also approved an EEC-funded program of
artificial
insemination, and the Department of Veterinary Services
and
Animal Industry tried to save existing cattle stock by
containing
diseases such as bovine pleuro-pneumonia, hoof-and-mouth
disease,
rinderpest, and trypanosomiasis.

Uganda's dairy farmers have worked to achieve selfsufficiency in the industry but have been hampered by a
number of
problems. Low producer prices for milk, high costs for
animal
medicines, and transportation problems were especially
severe
obstacles to dairy development. The World Food Programme
(WFP)
undertook an effort to rehabilitate the dairy industry,
and the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other UN
agencies
also helped subsidize powdered milk imports, most of it
from the
United States and Denmark. But the WFP goal of returning
domestic
milk production to the 1972 level of 400 million liters
annually
was criticized by local health experts, who cited the
nation's
population growth since 1972 and urgent health needs in
many wartorn areas.

Local economists complained that the dairy industry
demonstrated Uganda's continuing dependence on more
developed
economies. Uganda had ample grazing area and an unrealized
capacity for dairy development. Malnutrition from protein
deficiency had not been eliminated, and milk was sometimes
unavailable in non-farming areas. Imported powdered milk
and
butter were expensive and required transportation and
marketing,
often in areas where local dairy development was possible.
School
farms, once considered potentially important elements of
education and boarding requirements, were not popular with
either
pupils or teachers, who often considered agricultural
training
inappropriate for academic institutions. Local economists
decried
Uganda's poor progress in controlling cattle diseases, and
they
urged the government to develop industries such as cement
and
steel, which could be used to build cattle-dips and
eliminate
tick-borne diseases.

Goat farming also contributed to local consumption. By
the
late 1980s, the poultry industry was growing rapidly,
relying in
part on imported baby chicks from Britain and Zambia.
Several
private companies operated feed mills and incubators. The
major
constraint to expanding poultry production was the lack of
quality feeds, and the government hoped that competition
among
privately owned feedmills would eventually overcome this
problem.
In 1987 the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa,
the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the
International
Development Bank, and the Ugandan government funded a
poultry
rehabilitation and development project worth US$17.2
million to
establish hatchery units and feed mills and to import
parent
stock and baby chicks.

Uganda's beekeeping industry also suffered throughout
the
years of civil unrest. In the 1980s, the CARE Apiary
Development
Project assisted in rehabilitating the industry, and by
1987 more
than fifty cooperatives and privately owned enterprises
had
become dealers in apiary products. More than 4,000 hives
were in
the field. In 1987 an estimated 797 tons of honey and 614
kilograms of beeswax were produced.